KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour talking about soldiers in danger, at risk. Not on the battlefield, but at their own hands. And we're learning this morning that just this past weekend it appears four Army soldiers took their own lives at Ft. Hood in Texas.
But as you know, because we've talked about this alarming trend of suicides here on this newscast, far too many times, that soldier suicides have risen each of the past five years. Just a couple of months ago, the Pentagon released a report on record high military suicides. 239 soldiers and reservists died by suicide just last year. And there were more than 1,700 suicide attempts.
Soldiers battling depression, stress, medical and relationship problems, and sometimes drug abuse. And as you can see, all of that is taking its toll in our men and women in uniform, clearly more has to be done.
Now back to Ft. Hood and Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joining us. She's following the story for us. She's in New York actually today. You know, hearing about these four suspected suicides in one weekend is tough to comprehend, but there have already been 14 suicides at Ft. Hood this year, Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, there have been. You know, Ft. Hood, the largest U.S. Army base in the world, 50,000 people, is a real microcosm of what is going on. Look at it this way, tens of thousands of troops, of course, have deployed to the war zones, suffered terrible stress, but do come home and in some fashion very successfully do resume their lives.
There are some that come home and this tragedy befalls them. That's the problem for the Army and for the military right now. Why is this trend in suicides creeping up month by month, year by year? Researchers will tell you it's the same three basic issues that plague people tragically. Relationship issues, money issues, substance abuse issues. At Ft. Hood right now there is a feeling of crisis, if you will. The commander has come out and talked about it openly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM GRIMSLEY, FORT HOOD SENIOR COMMANDER: Those 14 soldiers and their losses are felt every day by their formations and their leaders, but those same leaders who are tackling these problems, and the issues that led to those 14 to take the step that they did, are the same leaders who are leading literally every day here thousands of soldiers at Ft. Hood who are facing the same stresses, the same challenges, the same periods of deployment, and the same issues as everybody else. (END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: And there you go. That's the issue on the table. What makes some soldiers able to go through a period of stress, but come home and able to deal with the problems, some tragically cannot. Ft. Hood was supposed to really be the showcase for suicide prevention. They have all sorts of counseling programs, efforts, encouraging soldiers to ask for help if they need it.
Commanders being trained to keep an eye on each and every soldier in their unit so they can spot trouble early and get help to those who need it. But tragically right now it's not working. There's a spike and it's not really understood why there's a spike and they're going to keep working away at it. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Sure hope they do. Barbara Starr, thanks.
I can't seem to find the line you mentioned.
Not what I heard. Could the transcript have been “corrected” before posting by CNN? I believe CNN has done this in the past.